Apple stock touches $600, adds $253 bn market value after Steve Jobs

Shares of Apple touched $600 yesterday morning, a $100 rise in less than a month since it first crossed the $500 mark, adding about $92 billion to its market capitalisation-equivalent to buying both commodities giant Glencore and mining giant Xstrata.

A day before Steve Jobs passed away, Apple shares closed at $372.50 and its market cap stood at $347 billion on 4 October 2011,  reflecting a rise in market cap by $253 billion in just 5 months and 11 days under its new CEO, Tim Cook.

Inspite of its high $600 per share price, more than 50 million shares of Apple were traded yesterday, which is three times its daily trading average over the past three months.

For comparison, ExxonMobil, the oil giant with which Apple was neck-and-neck in terms of market cap for months, was worth $405.8 billion yesterday afternoon, or $194.2 billion less than Apple.

Apple's stock has been climbing up at a constant pace since re-crossing the $100-mark in 2010, and analysts believe its stock will surpassing $1,000 by 2013 once it launches its much hyped Internet TV, although Apple's loyalists believe that the company may breach the magical $1,000 figure this July.

Early this week, Morgan Stanley added Apple to its "Best Ideas" list, giving the Cupertino, California-based company a price target of $720 while giving a "Bull Case" one-year target of $960 per share, which means that even new investors can still make money by investing in the technology giant.